Surely, He Was the Son of God

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

Matthew 27:50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.  52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.  53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. 54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

SURELY: from the Greek alethes; truly, certainly, really. Surely is about real vs. unreal; truth vs. non-truth. It is not a question; it is an affirmation. Confronted with the experience that afternoon, the centurion and those with him were certain.

What about people in the 21^st century? Not so much. They may read those words as though they were followed by a question mark; “Really! He the son of God?” For some, it becomes a suggestion that people might think about rather than a statement of faith.

To share the words of the centurion and declare, ‘SURELY He was the Son of God,’ demands that we make a leap of faith, that we see the crucifixion as a cosmic event; that we see this death as a moment that forever changed everything.

To the world, SURELY is unreasonable. SURELY is irrational. But to people of faith, SURELY is to decide that the centurion and his companions were right.

There are a lot of other things in the life of Jesus that we must say SURELY to as well—the virgin birth, feeding the 5,000, walking on water, the Ascension, just to mention a few. SURELY demands a belief in these and much more. There is little room for fudging or compromise here. The Christian faith is one of the supernatural and miraculous. 

Therefore, SURELY asks us what we believe about the Man hanging on the cross in the darkness of that Friday afternoon. Was He the Son of God or simply a wandering Galilean preacher with delusions of grandeur?

“If he’s the Son of God, let him save himself and us,” the thieves said of Him. Others mocked and ridiculed Him. “He trusted in God that He should deliver Him. If He abides in God, let God deliver Him.”

SURELY asks us if we believe that the crucifixion was a world-changing event or a deceitful hoax—concocted by the worst charlatans in history.

Matthew 27:62-64 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”  

Could the disciples have pulled off such a feat? Would they have the ingenuity and wherewithal to do that? Most likely not. But that didn’t stop the religious leaders from spreading the rumor.

Matthew 28:11-15 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.  When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

I would submit to you that this event was not a hoax, but rather a world-changing event.

SURELY asks us if everything ended on that Friday afternoon or if there is the hope of Sunday to come.

When Jesus said, “It is finished,” did that end it all? Or was it just the beginning?

SURELY challenges our beliefs and makes us confess that in God, all things in Scripture become possible.

That doesn’t mean that we will be able to jump over a 20-foot wall. But it does mean that anything God wants us to do can be accomplished. “I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME.”

SURELY demands a change in our lives. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

‘Surely he was the Son of God!’ The words come to us down through the centuries; a statement of faith in the darkest of moments.

SURELY. The word asks us to think. Each time we come to church, each time we say a prayer, each time we sing a hymn, each time we recite a Scripture, each time we break bread, we are asked to think: are we sure?